“Working for Reform”

1. “Working for Reform” Chapter 9.2: Movements for Reform

2. Objectives: • What motivated temperance reformers? • Why did some women believe it was important to become involved in reform movements? • How did educational opportunities change in the early 1800s? • How and why did reformers work to improve prisons and other institutions?

3. The Second Great Awakening “Spiritual Reform From Within”[Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Education Temperance Abolitionism Asylum &Penal Reform Women’s Rights

4. Temperance Reformers • Wanted to reduce criminal behavior, family violence, and poverty • Desired a more disciplined workforce • Wanted to preserve the family • Led largely by clergy, it first focused on drunkeness and did not oppose moderate drinking • The American Temperence Society was founded in 1826, taking voluntary abstinence as its goal

5. Temperance Leaders Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) Neal Dow (1804-1897)

6. The Drunkard’s Progress From the first glass to the grave, 1846

7. Results!! • During the next decade approximately 5000 local temperance societies were founded • As the movement gained momentum, annual per capita consumption of alcohol dropped sharply

8. Life for 19th Women • Unable to vote. • Legal status of a minor. • Single/Widow --> could own her ownproperty. • Married --> no control over herproperty or her children. • Could not initiate divorce. • Couldn’t make wills, sign a contract, or bring suit in court without her husband’s permission.

9. Women and reform Many women believed that they had a duty to become involved in reform since they were expected to instill values of good citizenship in their children and serve as the moral voice in their household- Cult of Womanhood.

10. Educational Reform • Expansion of public education • Starts in Massachusetts-1830s • Horace Mann was leader-Secretary of State • Creates a state board of education and adopted a minimum-length school year • Provided for training of teachers • Expanded the curriculum to include subjects such as history and geography • Opening of first public high school • Expansion of opportunities for women and African Americans to receive a college education

11. Reform of Jails and Prisons • Reformers created the penitentiary system, built more prisons, and established reform schools to deal with the imprisonment of juveniles with adult offenders.

12. Poorhouses Reformers established a network of poorhouses, where the able-bodied poor would be required to work and where poor children could be educated.

13. Mental Hospitals • Rehabilitation hospitals were established to get mentally ill people out of jails and poorhouses. • Dorothea Dix, a Boston schoolteacher advocated for state-supported asylums for the mentally ill. • She attracted much attention to the movement by her report detailing the horrors to which the mentally ill were subjected-being chained, kept in closets, beaten with rods in prisons with criminals. • In response to her efforts, 28 states created and maintained mental institutions by 1860.